The Establishment of Smart Cities: Existing Challenges and Opportunities – The Case of Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Information and communication technologies (ICTs) have improved the quality of people’s lives during the past few decades by performing urban services to build “super cities,” sometimes referred to as smart cities. The expansion of smart city programs across the globe is a strategic response by governments to deal with current issues. The goal of the smart city is to use ICTs and knowledge to enhance infrastructure management and city administration. Smart cities have been the subject of several studies, but Saudi Arabia has seen very few of these studies. Due to the region’s religious background and pilgrimage activities, this researcher has examined the requirement for ICT framework and made a proposal. In order to meet all requirements for smart cities in the near future, this research suggests a workable ICT model framework and aims to examine smart cities in terms of potential advantages and obstacles to their development in the Kingdom. It also offers a model for creating smart cities in the Kingdom. The study on Saudi Arabia’s smart city projects is intended to boost the advantages of beginning to develop smart cities throughout the Kingdom.

1. Introduction

The fundamental concept of the smart city has shared features in terms of key indicators, including a smart economy (sustainable economic growth), easy mobility, clean environment (including wise resource management), smart people, a high standard of living, and smart government [1]. A smart city can increase comfort, ease mobility, save energy, enhance the quality of fundamental services like clean air and drinkable water pipelines, as well as identify current issues and take quick action to resolve them. It also entails making judgments quickly in the wake of natural disasters or other catastrophic events, gathering data to do so, and sharing that data with others to foster collaboration across many sectors. However, a smart city should be treated as an organic whole, as both a network and linked system, in order to systematically permeate intelligence into each subsystem of a city such as transportation, energy, education, healthcare, housing, and physical infrastructure (e.g., food, water, and public safety) [2].

Existing cities and megacities produce new kinds of technical, physical, and material issues like (1) challenges with waste management; (2) resource scarcity; (3) air pollution; (4) concerns about human health; (5) traffic congestion; and (6) inadequate, deteriorating, and ageing infrastructures [3, 4]. In contrast to technical, physical, or material issues, there is a different set of issues that are social and organizational in character. These kinds are frequently connected to a wide range of diverse stakeholders, high levels of interconnection, conflicting goals and values, and social and political complexity [3]. Therefore, in the near future, it will be necessary to discover suitable solutions for sustainable city development for cities that contribute significantly to growing greenhouse gas emissions caused by inhabitants.

For a better understanding of the smart structure, the main elements of each sector are noted below in Figure 1’s representation of the crucial sectors of smart city development.

Figure 1.

Core elements of smart city development.

1.1 Smart living

• Sewerage and sanitation

• Water supply

• Electricity

• Stormwater drainage

• Housing

• Citizen safety

1.2 Smart people

• Education

• Participation in public life

• Participation of communities

• Health

• Inclusive development

1.3 Smart mobility

• Transport

• Communication infrastructure

• Information accessed by all digital media

1.4 Smart economy

• Income levels

• Labor market

• Poverty level

1.5 Smart environment

• Pollution

• Sustainable resources

• Management

1.6 Smart governance

• Revenue management

• Administration

• Grievance management

• Policy

The application of ICT is one of the primary components of a “smart city.” Future cities will strive to achieve a balance between technological, human, and physical and software features [5]. The development of smart ICT applications is essential for enabling smart cities to support decision-making and implementation processes, as well as citizen participation in smart city initiatives. ICT is a tool that is fundamentally centered on the citizen and, as such, adopts a citizen-driven approach. The architecture of a smart city must take into account a variety of relevant stakeholders, including end users, groups of end users, IT experts, policy/service domain experts, and public administration. Collaboration between the business, education, government, and private sectors can lead to successful initiatives. ICT provides the fundamental platforms for the development of a smart city, and also it can offer a wide range of advanced services in many crucial fields, including intelligent transportation systems (ITS), environmental and energy monitoring, building management, healthcare, public safety and security, remote working, and e-commerce [6, 7]. In other words, ICT is crucial to the provision of seamless and omnipresent services since it connects all the actors and sectors that make up a smart city [6, 8, 9].

Smart cities are characterized by a widespread usage of ICTs in many urban domains, in order to help cities make better use of their available resources. ICT systems have a number of important advanced techniques; in particular, hard domains refer to office and residential properties, energy grids, natural resources, the management of energy and water sources, proper waste management, and transportation and logistical support [10]. ICTs are currently regarded as a necessary resource for modern society, such as in the distribution of water and electricity, in the digital era. ICT is an interdisciplinary technology that aids businesses in lowering costs, enhancing procedures, fostering innovation, and boosting production. Additionally, it reduces the size of the public sector and enhances the delivery of healthcare, making it quicker and more user-friendly.

This research advances our knowledge of the technological significance of smart technologies and services that are based on smart ICT frameworks for smart cities. It presents a model proposal for building smart cities (Figure 2). The model offers a variety of evaluation points, such as the strategic context of smart cities and recommendations for using ICT and smart applications. In light of the concept, it discusses the significance of ICT infrastructure and how to connect it to smart cities in order to deliver electronic services in Saudi cities.

Figure 2.

ICT structure model for the smart city.

This research is organized as follows: section two reviews the history of the concept of the smart city, smartness, and ICT sectors, with reference to existing literature; section three provides information on investment in IT technology in Saudi Arabia; section four presents the motivation and problem addressed by the research; section five proposes an ICT model suitable for smart cities alongside other infrastructure. Implementation suggestions are discussed in section six, and the advantages and emerging opportunities of smart cities are presented in section seven. Finally, conclusions are presented in section eight.

2. Literature review

The Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs in Saudi Arabia is becoming more reliant on modern technology as a result of how heavily our communities rely on knowledge and ICTs in the real world.

The researcher will start this study by outlining the current situation of Saudi Arabia’s use of IT and investment in the country. Al-Maliki [11] claims that the use of ICT is increasing, particularly in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. This research study’s goal is to determine the effects of ICT investment in Saudi Arabia and the role that the government plays in this context. According to another study by Al-Maliki [12] the adoption of e-governance in Saudi Arabia is influenced by a number of factors, Lack of training and human resources, together with limited computer literacy, were identified to be the main obstacles to adoption. Al-Maliki [11] also indicates that difficulties with literacy, technical issues, and a lack of knowledge and trust may be the main obstacles to the growth of this kind of business in Saudi Arabia.

Al-Maliki [13] found that Saudi Arabia invests a significant amount of money in its ICT sector, including projects such as an e-government portal, e-government network, e-government interoperability framework, e-payment gateway (Sadad), e-tax system, and electronic information exchange. In this regard, Al-Maliki and Al-Ghobiri [14] did study on smart applications utilized in Saudi Arabian tourism, in particular in the city of Abha. The results support the conclusion that growth in ICT will significantly enhance communications with tourists and provide them with crucial tourist information and convenient tools for managing their travel plans. According to the study, it is now important to take care of Saudi Arabia’s smart cities, including Abha and others. Al-Maliki [15] also outlines the elements affecting Saudi Arabian residents’ understanding of e-government services. The results demonstrate that Saudi residents’ awareness is poor in some areas and that they have a poor comprehension of how to use e-services. Many people believed that the help and support provided to residents was hindered by an obvious lack of managerial support, and there was also a distinct lack of understanding regarding e-government services.

Other research in the literature about smart cities included that of Lee et al. [16]. The study by Lee et al. [16] was another study on smart cities that was found in the literature. This study’s goal was to present an integrated road mapping procedure for services, tools, and technology that may be used in a Korean R&D project for developing smart cities. The method for establishing links between devices and technologies, as well as between services and devices, is applied in this work. A thorough case study that demonstrates how several types of road mapping may be linked to generate a clear depiction of the technological changes and uncertainties connected with the strategic planning of complex innovations serves as an illustration of the method.

The “smart city” is defined by Piro, Cianci, Grieco, Boggia, and Camarda [6] as an urban setting supported by pervasive ICT systems that can provide advanced and innovative services to inhabitants in order to improve the general quality of their lives. This study suggests a potential solution to the issue, by emphasizing the issue’s applicability in actual situations drawn from the following areas—government and public administration, intelligent transportation systems, public safety, social, healthcare, and education.

In their discussion of city logistics, Perboli, De Marco, Perfetti, and Marone [17] present an integrated picture of freight transportation systems within metropolitan regions with the goal of optimizing them all in terms of effectiveness, security, safety, viability, and environmental sustainability. The idea of “smart cities” has broadened this viewpoint to incorporate many facets of city administration, including building, energy, environment, government, living, mobility, education, and health, among others. They introduce this categorization in their study, which also examines emerging trends in smart cities and highlights key success elements.

Neirotti, De Marco, Cagliano, Mangano, and Scorrano [10] elaborate taxonomy of pertinent application areas, namely, natural resources and energy, transit and mobility, buildings, living, government, economy, and people, to provide a thorough grasp of the concept of the smart city. Additionally, it examines the spread of smart initiatives through an empirical study that aims to understand the impact of various economic, urban, demographic, and geographic factors as well as the proportion of prospective smart initiative domains that are covered by a city’s best practices. This book offers policymakers and city managers practical suggestions for developing and advancing smart city strategies, as well as for organizing actions targeted at the most suitable implementation domains.

The abstract idea of what it means to be a smart city is starting to be replaced by Angelidou’s [18] discussion of the factors influencing the smart city notion. Urban futures and the information and innovation economy make up the two main components of this research article’s analysis of the recent history of smart cities. The report then explains the push-and-pull forces in modern technology that are driving the demand for smart city solutions. On the one hand, technology is developing quickly, fueling a huge market for products and solutions related to smart cities. On the other hand, there is a demand from cities that aims to address issues with sustainability and efficiency, providing a favorable environment for the economy of smart city products.

We all live in different cities, some of which are advanced technologically while others are still in the early stages of development. One effective example of a smart city in the world is Sungdo in South Korea, located in the south of Seoul. It uses computers, sensors, and alternative energy to monitor and manage energy consumption throughout buildings and roads. Masdar City in the UAE’s Abu Dhabi Desert is one of the world’s most intelligent, sustainable, and ecologically friendly communities, with a solar power plant right in the midst of the city. Wind farms generate electricity, leaving no environmental pollutants behind. Also, more than 100 million sensors have been installed at Planet City in Portugal to protect people from accidents and fires. There are systems that assist in informing drivers of the available parking spaces. These systems also modify the duration of traffic signal systems in accordance with the volume of traffic. Fujisawa City in Japan was built by Panasonic with a complete reliance on electric power, decreasing the pollution caused by burning fossil fuels. The city is equipped with power stations. As the “Green Capital,” Copenhagen, Denmark strives to lessen environmental pollution and promote sustainable buildings. It also serves as a role model for the ongoing modernization of future initiatives.

3. Research motivation

The smart city is expanding quickly as urban areas’ population ranks rise at an ever-increasing rate. Residents worldwide are dealing with a wide range of hazards, worries, and issues as a result of urban populations, particularly in cities. Due to the extraordinary rate of urban growth, it is more important than ever to discover creative approaches to resolve current problems amicably. The main goal of these methods was to look into the availability and use of ICT services for creating smart cities and to support the connection between ICTs and various services provided by the cities.

The Saudi Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs implemented five smart initiatives, including smart attitudes, smart lighting, solid waste, smart cameras, and environmental pollution measuring devices. The following are some other important ICT service-specific goals:

• Determine which ICT services are appropriate for the smartness approach

• Learn about the smart city’s Internet and network connectivity

• Assess ICT strategy and put smart city policies into place

• Elements that influence ICT use in smart cities

• How is cloud data storage system connected to smart city connectivity?

• Data security and authentication are components of smartness

• Integration between smart sectors

• Data application accessibility and availability

• The cost and maintenance of ICT tools in the smart city concept

• Ensuring data privacy, individuals, companies, and local municipal administration

According to Ref. [19], the National Transition Program 2020 and the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 inspired the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs to develop the “Smart City Concepts” initiative, a municipal transformation initiative. In collaboration with the commercial sector, this initiative intends to implement the ideas and components of smart cities in five Saudi cities by 2020. This project, which examines the elements of smart cities and the diffusion and activation of their application, is one of several significant projects being undertaken by the ministry, and it should be highlighted. The program argues that the readiness of the cities in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to become smart cities varies. According to research on the components of smart cities, Makkah is the most prepared city, followed by Riyadh, Jeddah, Madinah, and Al-Ahsa [19]. The ministry notes that it has started to develop national policies and local strategies to transform the five cities over a number of years, making two of them smart cities in 2018, three by the end of 2019, and all five by the end of 2020. According to the program, research is being conducted to ascertain whether Saudi cities are prepared to transition into smart cities based on best practices from across the world and science (vision, culture of innovation and participation, procedures, technology, data, urban planning).

The creation of jobs, attracting investment, and improving the quality of life in cities are all significant goals of smart cities. Cities in Saudi Arabia have a lot of the characteristics necessary to qualify as smart cities. They have excellent natural resources, infrastructure, and robust economies.

According to Makkah [19] the Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs in Saudi Arabia notes that the field survey targeted 17 cities, including the major ones in the country, which together account for roughly 72% of the country’s population. These cities are: Makkah, Riyadh, Jeddah, AlMadina AlMonawara, Alahsa, Dammam AlKhobar, Qatif, Taif, Buraidah and Onaiza, Abha.

4. Existing challenges

ICT platforms are key enabling factors of a smart city due to their capacity to provide a significant number of fundamental services for citizens. Many different types of devices will coexist in a smart city and interact with one another in order to carry out, join, and take part in a variety of services that support human life. As a result, the following challenges may arise:

• Equipment costs

• Replacing the existing ICT structure

• Requiring changeover technology

• Establishing public and private smartness

• Limited technical capacity

• Horizontal and vertical coordination between sectors

• Coordination between central government, state government, and local government

• Ability to handle different software applications for smart city solutions

• Reliability of utility services

• Universal software access at any time, 24/7

• Local language support

• Authorized personnel entry for using utility services

• Access to new ICTs is dominated by a small number of educated individuals

• Accessible space and insecurities based on social category or age

• Climate change is expected to have significant impacts on smart cities

• ICT structure should be fast, reliable, and provide effective access

• ICT structure should have the capability to identify user location

• Seamless support for mobile users to access different networks

• Adequate and alternative facilities in case of ICT system failures

The Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs applies the concepts of smart cities in accordance with best international practices in this regard, which will assist cities in implementing change and contribute to the implementation of ICTs.

Numerous electronic applications for municipal services were developed by the Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs. The concepts and standards for smart cities aim to deliver the maximum advantage for assisting in the transformation of smart cities by allowing them to operate efficiently and effectively in accordance with the performance of urban and community activities while consuming fewer resources.

In order to achieve the goals of intelligent transformation, the ministry addresses a number of challenges that are inherent in making Saudi cities smart, such as the integration of information and data, access to suitable participation models with the private sector, and smart community partnerships. A project titled “Study of the Application of Smart City Components in Urban Planning” was started by the ministry in 2015. The study focused on 17 main cities in the Kingdom, including the capitals of the relevant regions, which together account for 75% of the country’s population. The study covered the creation of a strategic vision for the city’s intelligent transformation, preparation for technical infrastructure, accessibility to a culture of innovation and engagement, data accessibility, and procedural clarity. To incorporate smart concepts and get the cities of the Kingdom ready to accept instructions for establishing smart cities, the ministry added these standards to the “urban planning and management” standard. More than 3300 population samples were field-surveyed for the study, along with 60 executive officers working in the secretariats of these cities [20].

5. An effective ICT structure model for a smart city

ICT is the cornerstone on which the idea of smart cities is based since it serves as the foundation for cross-domain networking. The requirement for smart city building tools concentrates on ICTs, policies, and legal frameworks, and emphasizes the importance of information availability.

Haidine et al. [21] emphasize the significance of the primary applications connected to smart city infrastructure in their study of smart city infrastructure and the role of ICT.

They offer a blueprint for smart cities that focuses on the economy, governance, ecology, and society—four crucial facets of embracing the city. They exhibit the essential elements of sustainable smart cities as well as the crucial ICT support for these elements during the construction of smart city infrastructure. Their model highlights crucial facets of digital architecture (IT and communications infrastructure). Additionally, there is a service infrastructure that offers services like e-government, healthcare, and education.

The model of Haidine et al. [21] also provides a road map for the application of ICT in smart cities. They emphasized that by connecting and organizing all of the various interactions within the infrastructure of the smart city parts, ICT plays a significant role as a core network for the smart city. According to a different study [22], ICT infrastructure in smart cities is essential to the growth of traditional cities and the process of making a city smart. According to Hernández-Muñoz et al. [7], the growth of urbanization is now heavily reliant on smart technology and intensive ICT solutions.

ICT and its subfields, including cloud computing, Internet access, big data, and remote sensing systems, have accelerated innovation in solutions and services and the unification of applications in recent years, which has helped to lower the cost of efficient cities [23]. Additionally, the International Telecommunication Union (ITUFocus)’s Group on Sustainable Smart Cities [24] researched the traits and tenets of the smart city. Four factors—the environment, sustainability, city-level services, and quality of life—reflect a city’s economics, government, environment, and society [24]. A smart city’s core industry, infrastructure, can be broken down into some categories: physical infrastructure, smart buildings, smart transit, smart water, smart waste, smart healthcare, and smart education. In their study, ITU [24] noted that every nation has a distinct character and culture. Depending on the nature of its projects, each nation also has the potential to meet the problems it will encounter and its own idea of what smart cities should be like. The objectives of smart cities are to provide all residents with a comfortable and high-quality living environment through ICT and other technologies.

After evaluating the earlier studies, the researcher chose an infrastructure and ICT model for this study that could make smart city initiatives in Saudi Arabia easier to implement in the near future. The researcher’s proposed ICT structure model is clearly shown in Figure 2. The proposed model addresses the need to comprehend smart cities and the challenges that limit their development it also demonstrates how the management of municipal services in Saudi cities might profit from this fast-expanding technology. The cloud storage technology is connected to a government platform, providing public and private sectors with authentications. Eventually, residents, the government, corporations, and other parties will be able to access a wide range of smart services via smart security access from the ICTs. The model will assist in identifying opportunities and challenges and how to address them in the process of creating smart cities or transforming traditional cities into smart cities. It can reduce time and costs for Saudi Arabian residents, the government, and corporate organizations while increasing access to some applications and electronic services. E-government applications will become more efficient in this model and its electronic services, and the provision of information, services, and transactions will be improved. The proposed structure will assist in overcoming obstacles during the initial phases of the development of smart cities.

5.1 Cloud storage

The preferred method for local administrations to increase productivity has become cloud storage, which gives outside city governments the ability to deliver a technological platform for data collection and mining as well as for producing city applications over a virtual private network or the public Internet. Input from sensors, smartphones, digital electric meters, or other smart input devices that are relevant to the operations of cities or towns cannot yet be used by the majority of city networks. Data collection requires specialized technology, software, and apps that can show the data in an understandable way.

5.2 Smart city administration

Greater mobility requirements, rising security concerns, and rising population concentration in consumption levels have all had a transversely significant impact on various city areas. In order to overcome these challenges cities must adopt more effective administration models, which will then help to consolidate city growth and enable flexible and systematic growth. A sustainable administration will be able to provide citizens with higher-quality, more effective services at a lower cost as a result. Better interaction and effective savings will result from achieving an integrated vision of the entire city. ICT contributes to a city’s efficient infrastructure and services, making them more intelligent, interconnected, and effective. These services and infrastructure include city administration, education, healthcare, public safety, business, transportation, and utilities. Networks are connected in a smart city in a way that allows them to support and benefit one another. Therefore, to maximize efficiency in the pursuit of competitiveness and sustainability, the technology used and the data collected should be able to continuously analyse and distribute data about the city to give the best solutions to a variety of problems from the perspective of the entire city.

5.3 Smart technologies

Smart devices allow users to be interconnected no matter where they are. These devices can be used to share data or access information. Embedded systems, smart devices, sensors, and actuators can improve a city’s space and infrastructure by facilitating real-time data management and information processing for the city’s administration. Smart technologies enable innovative methods for city transport administration, traffic regulation, and environmental pollution monitoring systems, among other facilities for urban growth, such as restoring a city’s key infrastructure. Furthermore, the development of crucial services is made possible by the extensive and pervasive use of smart technology.

5.4 Mobile technologies

In a setting where the Internet and web applications are used, mobile technologies play a vital role in the development and distribution of smart services, which can be attributed to the creation and spread of sensors of various types. Innovation in the field of embedded systems is also essential because it offers a platform for effective ICT structures, allowing user data to be transformed into information that can be used to optimize business developments through continuous, secure integration with cloud services such as creation, monitoring, provisioning, tracking, managing, controlling, and forecasting.

5.5 Virtual technologies

The development of a suitable multi-dimensional information structure will be aided by virtual technology and network connections. ICT makes it possible for multiple networks to operate simultaneously on an ICT structure, each with unique features and purposes. ICT includes two essential components: (1) The best possible virtual network capacity allocation based on communication traffic; and (2) The best possible virtual network route optimization based on smart people’s usage. This technology will improve network utilization efficiency and allow telecom providers to offer high-speed communications to more customers and smart devices.

5.6 Digital networks

Digital service is a critical component of any smart city design. Critical urban areas, including educational institutions, business and industrial hubs, government offices, and emergency response units, have seen a surge in wireless device and fiber-optic cable connectivity. These wireless and fiber-optic networks are essential because they assure high-speed Internet access. The long-term objective of building such an infrastructure is to enable an open broadband network that all city residents can use. The widespread use of high-speed Internet encourages the establishment of smart city models and innovative approaches to particular social problems. In addition, transportation will include a significant traffic management unit that will use sophisticated mobile applications.

5.7 Network and sensor technologies

The ability of modern ICTs to instantly connect huge networks of people and organizations over greater geographic distances at a low cost is what gives them their revolutionary potential. Within the framework of the current smart city models, they have significantly increased economic growth, transformed businesses, markets, and organizations, modernized learning techniques and knowledge exchange, and empowered individuals and communities. Additionally, they make it easier to install the sensors needed to create intelligent city solutions. With the help of an appropriate ICT that monitors parking space availability, handles traffic congestion, predicts the arrival times of trains, busses, and other modes of public transit, etc. Sensors can be utilized to manage the mobility needs of citizens.

5.8 Safety and security

Protection of the general people and the security of the infrastructure, which are integral to the idea of smart cities, are considered to be safe and secure in the context of smart cities. Public safety includes issues like hazard management, crisis response, and civil security. Rescue services, disaster preventive services, police services, and others have new opportunities and challenges attributable to the smart city. Urban areas that are highly networked offer completely new information sources that can be used to protect the public. It is imperative that ICT security requirements be carefully reviewed when designing any new system related to smart cities.

6. Implementation phase of the proposed ICTs

It has been demonstrated that the usage of ICTs is a key indicator of a smart city. Significance of ICT technologies for enhancing a city’s effectiveness and ensuring a more secure future across networks of people, business centers, research and technology, infrastructure development, water consumption, energy consumption, and spaces. These ICT elements work together in a smart city, supporting and enhancing one another. In order to maximize efficiency in the quest for affordability and sustainability, the technology and data collection utilized in smart cities should be able to continuously analyse and distribute data about the city. To enable vital communications within the same region and country, data and information sharing and communication throughout the city should be used as a standard and reusable method. Our proposed ICT structure will empower a smart city to create intelligent data, information, people, and organizations. It will make it possible to redesign the interactions between government, the private sector, non-profit organizations, communities, and citizens. Smart cities cannot be developed by only deploying sensors, networks, and analytics in an effort to improve efficiency; implementation of our suggested ICT model is a crucial component.

Three crucial entities will be involved in our implementation phase. The first of these is government, or the senior decision-makers who are crucial for developing a vision, launching, sanctioning, and promoting ICT activities, as well as for legislation and adopting “enabling” policy frameworks. In the second place, are the administrators of smart cities, who frequently carry out ICT projects. Mid-level administration can also play a significant role in identifying and promoting new ideas, especially if they have a strong grasp of ICT potential. Lastly, if an enabling climate is there, the private sector will have the greatest capacity to develop and modernize. The private sector may play a crucial role in advancing ICT and be essential to its expansion and sustainability.

The planned smart city will meet user needs for content retrieval in a quick, dependable, and efficient way. The location of certain data will be identifiable when more smart technologies are connected. The smart cities in Saudi Arabia are placing a greater focus on the security aspect of the above structure. The main challenge for the smart city is mobility; our plan offers smooth mobility assistance, free from service interruptions while switching between different access networks. Storage, bandwidth, and computing capabilities are additional crucial features of the proposed structure. Furthermore, any form of system failure can be managed using our implementation ICT model. Any strategy, including top-down, bottom-up, and hybrid approaches, can be implemented using the ICT structure we have given.

6.1 Top-down approach

One of the most significant issues in the contemporary digital environment is the smart city. New business opportunities may arise if a city is able to utilize its data to better serve its workers, residents, visitors, and the community at large. Implementing smart cities is a crucial area of fresh thinking for giving people and society access to the newest digital technology. In terms of managing and formulating policy, our ICT structure may collaborate with top management. It is designed to connect advanced technological capabilities in an attempt to build resilient, sustainable, and equitable cities that can give us a better quality of life.

6.2 Bottom-up approach

The bottom-up strategy helps city dwellers and workers to live secure lives with their families. Therefore, the fundamental elements that give rise to urban life include; individual human activity in their personal and family lives, as well as their official participation in society. As a result, the bottom-up approach is heavily emphasized in smart cities and smart urbanization. It makes it possible for private businesses, community reformers, and citizen-led creativity to be successful while generating long-term profit and social value. Cities will be more productive as a collective and more resilient and stronger when economic or climatic events change their circumstances if the chance to do so is broadly available. People use whatever resources available to them to get by in life, support their families, and create profitable business environments. This is known as a bottom-up approach. Cities benefit from bottom-up creativity for all of their residents, thus we must modify and enhance them to better foster this creativity.

6.3 Hybrid approach

The hybrid approach is a worldwide technique event aimed at exploring the emerging nature of the city and the potential transformation of the urban condition as a result of ongoing ICT innovations and their integration into the physical context of the city. The concept of a hybrid structure for non-motorized road users combines the usage of smartphones and currently commercially accessible net-based mobility services. A number of research initiatives have been launched to develop door-to-door multimodal mobility support for travelers to increase the flexible use of public transportation. These programs will guide the traveler as needed, similar to a car navigation system, but independent of the mode of transportation. Because we are integrating new technology from the bottom-up rather than from a top-level restructuring or implementing structure, the integration approach will result in a program that is both cost-effective and requires a minimum amount of time to build.

7. Advantages and emerging opportunities

Better services for citizens and society will be made possible by smart city mechanisms that manage operations without requiring human interaction. Achieving socioeconomic and environmental benefits is made possible by smart cities. Though it can be challenging to choose the ideal platform for this, only the proper platform, collecting the appropriate data, can lead to broad market adoption among millions of consumers each year.

The main goal of creating a smart city is to benefit society with effective services. Figure 3, clearly demonstrates that the residents of the city are the primary beneficiaries of the smart city. A unique ICT infrastructure is needed for planning and management in order to offer services around-the-clock. The initiatives from the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs will benefit the chosen Saudi cities by improving living standards and population satisfaction, boosting urban sustainability and competitiveness, enhancing city management effectiveness and prosperity indicators, lessening negative environmental effects, drawing in both domestic and foreign investment, and promoting job growth.

Figure 3.

ICT integration with human and smart services.

Our proposed ICT structure will provide many benefits to the government, environment, economy, society, people, and private organizations.

7.1 Benefits to the government

The proposed ICT structure assures that the efficient use of public resources and data can hasten the development of other smart cities within the country, giving the country a national competitive advantage. ICT structure can boost government accountability, transparency, responsiveness, and democratic control, promote citizens’ self-empowerment, and their social involvement and commitment, improve the next generation of empowered civil servants, develop innovative technology, ensure efficiency in government services, and create value for the wider economy.

The proposed ICT structure additionally includes the first right-to-information initiative, which enhances the public right to access information from a human rights perspective. The open government data movement is another example of this, which largely promotes the release of government data for socioeconomic justifications. According to the reasoning, making such information available to the general public can benefit society by fostering more democratic participation and more socially inclusive service delivery. The government will be able to connect citizens directly with all available services and resources with the use of distinctive methods for identifying citizens. Smart city apps will concentrate on releasing electronic services through various applications, such as Google smart devices, in terms of security. This will make it easier to identify the most significant distinctions between conventional and smart cities in the future.

7.2 Benefits to the people and society

Municipalities all around the world are under pressure to build strong infrastructures to handle the rising demand for housing, city services, and efficient transportation. Concerns about quality of life are also being addressed by society. ICT can boost human resource technical expertise and educational quality, resulting in higher productivity and quicker development. This perception entails boosting a city’s tourism appeal, strengthening the quality of life in terms of services, and fostering social cohesion and safety. The education sector will also be connected to modern technology and its integration into teaching technologies in colleges and schools, with a focus on the importance of modern technologies in terms of enhancing and streamlining the educational process.

7.3 Benefits to the private sector

The local smart city administration cannot provide all services. Therefore, private industry participation in the development of smart city concepts is needed. Private industries are spotting chances to collaborate with city decision-makers on the designs of smart city initiatives as they search for new sources of income and attempt to capitalize on consumer interest in anything digital. Cities, in turn, are aware of the necessity of enhancing their security, economic prosperity, and environmental health. Partnerships between the private sector and city administration to create more livable, sustainable, and resilient communities are becoming more common. Establishing how a networked city connects its citizens and assisting private industries to strengthen the national economy and increase job possibilities for citizens is a vital duty of municipal governments and their administration.

7.4 Environmental benefit

Economic growth and activity in a smart city are sustainable and logically incremental since they are founded on market forces that are oriented toward success. Citizens, businesses, the government, and the environment all profit from them. Smart cities can enhance the effectiveness of waste management while reducing energy use and greenhouse gas emissions. The installation of self-powered garbage cans that wirelessly inform collection vehicles to collect the waste is made possible by the ICT structure, contributing to the maintenance of a healthy environment. Through Wi-Fi connectivity, the use of smart networks for rainwater drainage, flood control, trash recycling systems, and other features, this system may support parks and pedestrian walkways.

7.5 Economic benefit

ICT is now the foundational technology for the development of smart cities. Broadband networks and mobile telephony are made possible by the Internet’s quick spread. Deepening capital through ICT investment is crucial for economic growth because it creates the infrastructure for ICT use and gives businesses useful hardware and software. The existence of a sector generating ICT goods and services is related to the second significant economic consequence of ICT. Since ICT production has been characterized by rapid technological advancement and a very strong demand, having such a sector might be vital for growth. As a result, the industry has expanded very quickly and significantly boosted exports, employment, and economic growth. The first pillar of a smart city is increased public transportation efficiency, a reduction in transaction costs, facilitating the quality of goods and services, quality monitoring, etc. in addition to the economy. As a result, all license-related information and business-related administrative issues will be electronically preserved.

As mentioned in the sections above, the main feature of developing smart cities in Saudi Arabia is the support they will provide to the residents, government, environment, and economy through continuous improvement to the quality of life. For example, smart cities will link residents to the Internet of Things and will provide services that meet their needs, such as effectively managing infrastructure and improving parking management in urban areas, which will improve traffic flow and reduce parking times.

Smart cities in Saudi Arabia will also improve urban planning, reduce the cost of real estate and electricity, and reduce the time taken from the consumer (transportation time, decision-making time, etc.).

In addition, applying smart city technologies in Saudi Arabia will contribute to improving life in cities by providing smart networks and cloud services to residents, and by using artificial intelligence and machine learning to analyse data and provide innovative solutions in areas such as transportation and mobility, security and safety, health and healthcare, housing and infrastructure, energy and water, and society and culture. The most important goals of building smart cities are improving quality of life, efficiency of services, safety and protection, and the sustainability of the city, as well as saving time and effort for residents through the application of modern technologies, automation, and smart control of public services and facilities.

As for the negative aspects of developing smart cities in Saudi Arabia, there are a number of disadvantages related to the technological side; the application of technology in smart cities is usually extremely complex, and it suffers from many implementation challenges at the governance and management levels, and also at the level of cooperation between citizens, private organizations, and city governments.

8. Conclusion

Applications of ICT can be found in almost every field, they enhance both our professional and personal life. The results of this investigation strongly imply that the effective development of smart cities around the world depends on the inclusion of ICT. It also emphasizes the motivational ICT infrastructure that supports numerous successful initiatives of smart applications. Coordination of ideas, projects, people, and society is made possible by the establishment of a smart city administration. Coordination at the local level can be crucial for solutions’ adoption as well as for ensuring their integration across a range of initiatives. Several smart cities emphasize that data about public services can be made available as open sources. Our proposed ICT methodology is capable of creating enthusiasm and awareness in society, to deploy, operate, and maintain ICT hardware, software, and systems so that they function effectively across all industries, which produces more knowledgeable and skilled individuals.

The suggested method for ICT infrastructure can be applied in one of three ways: top-down, bottom-up, or in a hybrid mix. Significant advancements in IT infrastructure over the past few years have helped create ICT-based infrastructure that is transforming conventional cities into smart cities. However, additional work needs to be done to advance smart city initiatives, and this work needs to be done by Saudi city municipalities so that the city’s infrastructure system may be developed with the proper ICTs. In order to address the challenges associated with the development of smart cities within the Saudi context, this research covered topics linked to smart cities and plans launched by the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs to transform a number of cities into smart cities. Finally, this research could pave the way for future research on smart cities and municipal involvement in creating suitable answers to the problems that municipalities may encounter when creating smart cities.